| Cly castle | |
| Location: | Aosta Valley, Italy |
| Pushpin Map: | Italy Aosta Valley#Italy North#Italy |
| Pushpin Relief: | y |
| Coordinates: | 45.7493°N 7.5604°W |
| Height: | 2520 ft. |
| Controlledby: | Municipality of Saint-Denis |
| Built: | 1207 |
| Builder: | Challant family |
Cly is a castle in the Italian town of Saint-Denis, overlooking the Dora Baltea (French: Doire baltée) river, in Aosta Valley, northwest Italy. It belongs to the so-called primitive style of castle, consisting of a keep with a surrounding wall. The ruins rise from a bed of metamorphic rock, on the edge of a fault line which extends to the Castle of Quart.[1]
Cly was first mentioned in a document from 1207, in which the "chapel sancti Mauricij (Saint Maurice) de castro Cliuo" is mentioned among the goods of the Vicarage of Saint-Gilles in Verrès,[2] but the keep has been dated to 1027 using an analysis of the tree rings in its timbers (dendrochronology). Originally a fief held from the Counts of Savoy, in 1376 the direct ownership passed to the Duchy of Savoy, which installed a castellan to administer it for them until abandoned in 1550. The castle fell to ruins in the centuries that followed.[3]
Eventually the castle ruins became the property of the nearby town of Saint-Denis. The castle is visible atop the hill overlooking the town of Chambave.[4] The castle is open to guided tours only in July and August. In addition to Cly, there are about 150 medieval castles, towers and fortified houses in the Aosta Valley.[5]